We’ve recently had a controversial primer on why British Sci-Fi television is better than its American counterpart, thanks to Daniel. I don’t know that we’ve had a similar post on the subject of written SF, but if you’re looking for something interesting to read that’s outside the realm of American authors, Jeff VanderMeer has a suggestion: look to Finland.
Birdbrain by Johanna Sinisalo
Jeff and Ann VanderMeer have recently returned from a tour of Finland and Jeff’s written everything you need to know about the apparently burgeoning Finnish Sci-Fi/Fantasy scene. A pair of features are currently on Amazon and Jeff’s site has the complete scoop on all things Finland. One of the goals of this trip was to raise awareness about Finnish writers and hopefully convince Finnish organizations to invest some money in translating titles into English, while convincing some editors in the US and UK markets that English versions would be a worthwhile venture. I’m all for that, if for no other reason than I don’t have the slightest clue of which keyboard combos generate some the accents I was seeing. According to Jeff, one Finnish book that’s already available in English and becoming somewhat buzzworthy is Birdbrain by Johanna Sinisalo. Based on his review, I was going to buy an e-book copy, but haven’t had any luck with Kobo, Sony or even Kindle. Amazon does offer the dead tree version, though, if you want to check it out.
The Quantum Thief by Finnish author Hannu Rajaniem has already been making a splash, including this mention last year in Wired’s beyond the beyond. And this title is available in digital format.
If you’re interested in some fresh new Sci-Fi or Fantasy, or you’d just like to read about what sounds like a fascinating trip, make sure to check out what Jeff has to say.
